In conventional crayon manufacturing apparatuses, gravity is utilized for filling the mold cavities with molten wax. Typically, a heated mold table, containing several mold compartments of multiple crayon mold cavities is flooded with a layer of a molten wax blend which flows into the crayon mold cavities to fill the molds. The table is then cooled and the wax sets to form the crayons. When the process is complete, the excess wax is scraped off the table top and recycled. However, this type of gravity process can cause air pockets to form in the individual mold cavities if the wax is too viscous or if the mold is too cold and allows the wax to solidify on the sidewalls of the cavities before the entire mold cavity can fill. Consequently, to avoid these problems, the crayon wax must be maintained at a sufficiently high temperature to maintain an appropriate viscosity, usually 245.degree. F. or higher, and the mold itself must not only be maintained at an appropriately high temperature to avoid premature cooling of the wax but must also be capable of rapid cooling to solidify the wax at the appropriate time.
As is readily apparent, the temperature of the wax is directly proportional to the time required to manufacture a finished crayon. Specifically, the higher the wax temperature, the longer time that is required for the wax to cool and the finished crayon to be completed. However, the higher the wax temperature, the less viscous the wax is and, as a result, the more quickly and completely it fills the mold cavities. Thus, a manufacturer must decide what temperature of wax is high enough to succeed in a gravity fill process but not too high to complicate cooling and lengthen the molding process.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide a crayon manufacturing apparatus which can use wax at a reduced temperature, thereby reducing the time to mold crayons, and which can also eliminate the formation of air pockets within the crayon body. It is another object of the present invention to provide an injection apparatus capable of injecting a variety of highly viscous materials into final packaging containers or into molds for the creation of a variety of finished products.